Senate Inquiry on Youth Allowance changes

The Coalition will seek to refer the changes to Youth Allowance to a Senate Committee for investigation as Members and Senators have been inundated with calls and concerns from parents and young people, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Education Minister said today.

"Julia Gillard's suggestion that this is a scare campaign just demonstrates how out of touch she is with the needs of her portfolio" Mr Pyne said.

The future of thousands of young Australians shouldn't be a political football. This Government talks big about increasing University attendance, but has disenfranchised more than thirty thousand students - particularly from rural and regional areas - from having the financial means to do so.

The Senate Committee would be able to investigate the consequences of this change - consequences that the Minister and her office should have been able to foresee if they paid any attention to detail.

It seems that despite Kevin Rudd's rhetoric about supporting working families, and giving everyone a fair go, Labor doesn't seem to care about the difficulties confronting the families of students from rural and regional areas in particular.

Many young people in the regional areas have told us they will not be able to pursue further study, purely because they can not afford to do so.

Their parents are above the threshold for income support, but are nowhere near wealthy enough to be able to pay for their children's rent, food and educational expenses. Remember these students simply do not have the option of staying at home while they study.

This is an enormous failure for a Government who claims they want to increase university attendance, particularly from disadvantaged groups.

"I urge all young people to post their concerns on www.educationforaustralia.com.au, the Coalition's education policy forum," Mr Pyne said.

This is another example of why Australia deserves better than a part-time Education Minister.